Falling Between Two
by Tye-Dye Lizard
Summary: After Annabeth's sudden death Percy locks himself away for more than a year. He reappears without warning at Nico di Angelo and Will Solace's shared doorstep, asking to visit. He comes over often thereon, and everything seems to be going back to normal, until Nico's health plummets. Movement causes nausea and vomit. But Will is prepared to do anything to save him.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Beyond shitty summary, my deepest apologizes. I lazy edited the one on Wattpad, which obviously allowed more characters.  
This is the story that has been distracting me from my books for so long and I have no complaints what so ever. I'm in fucking love with this plot and these characters and _this shi d  
_But I hope you enjoy, this is ridiculous amounts of fun to write, and it should be updated soon! Love you all! 3

**Summary:** After Annabeth's sudden death six years after the events in HOO, Percy locks himself away for more than a year, swallowed by his own sorrow. He reappears without warning at Nico di Angelo and Will Solace's shared doorstep, asking to stay for dinner. He visits frequently after that, at least twice a week, and everything seems to be going back to normal, until Nico's health plummets.  
He can't stand or walk on his own, and is in a constant wave of nausea, headaches, and vomit. Yet there is nothing wrong with him that even Apollo- the God of healing can sense. He will surely die without treatment, but without a cause, what can be done for him? Nonetheless, Will is prepared to do anything to save his best friend's life.

* * *

No one could believe it had happened.  
After everything they had been through, the monsters, the Titans, the Giants, and even the Earth Mother herself, one of the seven was killed that day. Even the one who took the force of death would have grimaced at their graceless departure: a car crash.  
Annabeth Jackson, age twenty-three and and loving wife of Percy Jackson left the Earth a week ago, angling her vehicle to save all the surrounding people from a drunk driver, speeding past a red light. No one else was hurt, not even the culprit. Only the daughter of Athena.  
Nico stood with his head down, off to the side of the gathering of the girl's closest friends. He felt her pass, when the opposing car hit her own, it was like a piece of him had been ripped out and torn to shreds right in front of him. He was sure the others felt it as well. No one seemed to be able to fully comprehend it, though. And no one was daring to speak it aloud.  
Annabeth, Wise Girl, friend, fighter, protector, warrior, legend.  
Dead.  
It wasn't possible, there was no way the grey eye girl would let herself leave the world without a bang, without a reason, a quest, a struggle. But she had. And saved several families lives. That must have been enough for her. It took every ounce of Nico's strength not to be infuriated with her.  
He had lost track of the time they spent standing in a field around a freshly covered grave. Hazel had tears streaming down her face in silence, Frank held her, but he looked no more stable. Piper was bawling, her hands over her eyes as Jason held her and slowly rocked back in forth. Her form shook as she hiccuped and shivered, her head furiously shaking back and forth as if saying "No!" to the fates. Jason's composure was breaking as well, but he seemed to be making an effort to keep himself together for his friends. Nico had no doubt he would cry in silence for hours later. Reyna stood on her own, on her knees before the headstone with her head bowed. Her shoulders shook occasionally, she was clearly refusing to let herself crack in front of so many people. She would have the same plans as Jason and lock herself away for hours and let the tears drown her.  
Percy wasn't even present. He had been here for the main ceremony, his face completely devoid of emotion, but as soon as it was over, he sprinted away, as if he couldn't bear being near the grave site any longer, and no one blamed him. Even Nico couldn't fully understand the pain he was in. He was young when Bianca died, and she had been his sister, not his romantic interest and soon partner of twelve years. The suffering was similar, he was sure, but he doubted he would ever be able to understand the exact sorrow Percy was feeling.  
There were several other people from both camps Nico didn't bother to place, many sharing the Fallen's blonde hair and grey eyes.  
The son of Hades had enough, and he faded himself into a shadow, morphing himself back home.

* * *

Will was sitting on the couch staring at a blank T.V and biting his lip nervously. As he heard Nico enter the room, he bounced up and met the ravenette half way, standing awkwardly in front of him, as if not knowing if he should hug him or tell him he had time to himself if he needed it.  
Nico decided for him and wrapped his arms around the taller boy's stomach, pressing his face onto his chest and finally letting go of his tears in silence. Will held him without a word, and began slowly rocking them back and forth, as Jason did with Piper. It helped him relax an in-explainable amount.  
He and Annabeth had never been close. Nico's crush on Percy put a major dent in their friendship for the first six years, but after everything was said and done, and Nico had finally filled the couple in on his secret, they began talking more, the air was much lighter, and they often enjoying being semi-antisocial together at camp events. Until the group of Athena kids grew too large for Nico to bear, and he went to find Will instead, giving Annabeth small but friendly farewells.  
He hadn't realized how much he missed talking to her... until it was too late. Nico felt his own shoulders shake and his grip on Will tightened. He hiccuped, loudly choking on his sobs. He felt Will's hand on his hair and could hear him whispering far away words of comfort, but it seemed insignificant. Annabeth was gone, and Nico never got to tell her goodbye, thank you, hello, I'll miss you or anything. He hadn't spoken to her and now she was dead and he never could. He had already tried talking to his father- something no one else appeared to think of- but he shot down the idea with a horrible shout and eye twitch before Nico could even finish his sentence. There was no getting her back.

Nico didn't remember going to his room after that, but he woke up in his bed staring at the ceiling in a cold sweat from a nightmare he couldn't remember. Being an adult changed nothing, demi-gods still were plagued with horrifying dreams every night. The only improvement was that they only seemed to remember the massively important ones.  
Nico forced himself to roll to his side and look at the clock. 2:17.  
Falling onto his back, Nico put a hand to his forehead. The shadow traveling from state to state must have taken more from him that he realized, and he simply hadn't noticed his exhaustion when he was hugging Will after he returned.  
Warmth spread across his cheeks. He didn't have the urge to slap himself for those sorts of actions anymore, if that was any kind of improvement. If anyone saw, however... he could only hope they knew how to manage themselves against an army of skeletons.  
He scowled slightly and stood from his bed. Damn piss. He would have liked to go back to sleep, but his bladder urgently called to him. That must have been how he awoke in the first place.  
He entered the bathroom and completed his business in groggy silence, narrowing his eyes against the light.  
Nico exited the bathroom with full intentions of collapsing into bed and snoring for three more hours before awaking again to make Will a small breakfast before he engrossed himself in his college work. That was how every morning was, after all. The majority of the day, Nico was left to his thoughts, books, and old Mythomagic cards- having recently been fired from his part-time job. Only in the late afternoons, evening and occasionally lunchtime did they talk or simply hang out. Nico didn't mind, though. The silence and solitary feeling of it was good for him, in his opinion.  
He halted in his tracks at the threshold of the door, his hand freezing just above the light switch, gravity pulling it down, and engulfing himself in darkness again. He felt his stomach drop to the floor and his knees become ever-so slightly shaky. _Annabeth_. She had completely slipped his mind.  
He felt tears sting behind his eyes, and he wiped them away with a curse under his breath. The last thing she would have wanted was for her friends to lose themselves in sorrow. No one could change the past, the least they could do was continue with lives and honor her memory. She would have hated to see them crying continuously over something they couldn't help. That Nico was sure of.  
Something close to the sound of a chair scraping against floor pulled him from his thoughts. The frequency was noticeably higher, there seemed to be merely pressure on the chair, and not actual weight. Nico's curiosity silently pulled him down the stairs. _Is that Will? Why would he be up this damn late? If it's even him, that is. Maybe it's a stupid burglar who thinks we were asleep and decided not to even attempt to be quiet. Asshole thief doesn't realize he entered the house of two demi-gods_. He poked his head around the corner to peer into the kitchen, his eyes no longer bothered by the light reflecting against the tiles. Will sat at the kitchen table with a steaming cup of tea next to him, pulling his hair in obvious frustration.

"Have you been working this whole time?" Nico asked harshly, entering the boundaries of the kitchen. Will jumped and spun around, his hand flying to his waist to grab the hilt of a sword that wasn't there. His gaze remained on Nico for several moments, long enough for the son of Hades to want to slap himself for feeling self conscious of his attire; an oversized black T-shirt and gray sweat pants.  
"Nico..." Will sighed and let his shoulder slump, turning back around and dropping his head on the table, a hand over his heart. "S-Sorry..."  
The ravenette disregarded his apology with a scowl the healer couldn't see and walked to the seat next to him, careful not to touch all the things carefully organized across the tabletop. Nico assumed Will had wasted a good twenty minutes doing that instead of his assignments. "Do you always have this much work and I just didn't notice?" He asked.  
Will rolled his shoulders and sighed again, for Nico to be able to smell the tea in his breath, he must have had a lot. He didn't particularly mind the fragrance, however. The two of them became obsessed with the home-made sweet tea Piper had shown them about two years ago, and had _at least_ four cups every day- Will even claimed it to be another one of his orders as their doctor. There were two water gallons and two plastic tea pitchers they used to hold the beverage total, and at any given moment three would be in use. The duo were completely shameless about this as well. It became so normal to them they couldn't seem to understand what everyone who visited was so surprised about when they looked into their fridge.  
"Well..." Will thought about his answer. "Little bit of both, I tend to push off my work for too long and then... this," He motioned across the table. He laughed bitterly. "It's still early for an all-nighter like this, too."  
Nico's scowl deepened, but he said nothing. Will had gotten enough complaints from the boy when he first decided he wanted to go to college to become a doctor. No one thought he could finish it, but three years in, he still had at least a high _B_ in every class.  
"Better this than fighting Giants," A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Nico's lips.  
"Eh... I'd take the Giants back... damn dyslexia..." Will grumbled. Nico barely caught the last part. He looked over the paper closest to him, attempting to decipher what the jumble of letters actually said, but he was left with only a headache. He would never be able to understand how Will managed to overcome that so well. The Son Of Hades could barely manage to watch T.V with all the words constantly flying around on the screen.  
"Anything I can help you with?" Nico asked after a moment of silence.  
"Write a few papers for me?"  
"I don't think that's allowed."  
"And you care about what's allowed and what's not since when?" Will chuckled. That pulled a smile out of Nico more than he would say.  
They sat in silence, the fight against sleep taking too much energy for them to start another proper conversation.  
"Okay." Nico jumped at Will's sudden words. Word. Speaking. Voice? Nico inwardly shrugged. "I'm going to finish this, I'll probably be done in about two hours. You can go back to sleep now."  
"Hell no," Nico glared at him. "I'm not letting you do all this work alone. Tell me how to help."  
Will gave him an incredulous look. "Yeah. You need sleep, go to bed."  
Nico ignored him and grabbed the paper closest to the blonde, and scanned the lines from right to left. Percy had always told him to try that when reading English, but he was still surprised at how much easier it was from him to understand the words then.  
"I'll write the answers on another paper and you copy them. I can quiz you tomorrow too, if you need it." Without waiting for a response, Nico grabbed one of the spare pencils laying on the tabletop and a fresh sheet of paper and began scribbling down the answers he happened to know on the worksheet he held. A lucky pick, he remembered most of these things from crash courses with Hazel and his limited time in public school.  
Will's stare didn't move from son of Hades. "You sure? It's a shit ton of work."  
"All the better I'm helping then." With that, Will took his word for it and began furiously typing an essay once again.

* * *

Nico awoke several hours later, laying on his side on the couch, and though he had no blanket, he wasn't as cold as he thought he would have- _should_ have been. It was nice though. He relaxed, enjoying the blissful feeling of half-sleep. Soon, he realized he had to get up. He blinked repeatedly, trying to get his eyes to focus enough to read the numbers on the cable box sitting atop the T.V across the room. Twelve... twelve forty-two? He wasn't entirely sure of that, with sleep still plaguing his eyes he would have to get closer to see it clearly. He wasn't exactly surprised he slept this late, remembering attempting to help Will sixty minutes before the witching hour and for who knows how long after that. If only he could remember the actual events. When the Son of Hades that too tired, his mind seemed to flush everything out the moment he fell asleep, deeming it all useless for whatever frustrating reason.  
He raised a hand to rub the sleep out of his eyes. With his senses beginning to fully awake, he realized he could hear Will's ever-so quiet snoring (Which Nico shamelessly considered adorable... In his head, at least) close by, and he could now feel a weight on his shoulder as well. His curiosity and confusion raised enough for him to leave his comfortable position and roll onto his back, and his heart nearly stopped.  
Nico wasn't cold because of how close the son of the Sun god was- who seemed to always radiate warmth. The weight on his shoulder had been Will's hand, which was now laying lazily on his chest from Nico's movement. And perhaps the thing that was most terrifying about the situation, was what he had been using for a pillow: Will's lap.  
Nico resisted the urge to scream as he jumped up, his socks sliding on the wooden floors and he fell in a pitiful mess, wedged between the coffee table and couch cushions. Will stirred in his sleep and groggily forced his eyes open, blinking in a similar manner the ravenette had done moments before. _Back when I was innocent._ Nico nearly chuckled at his own over-dramatized thought.  
He forced himself to stand and fought a quick mental battle with himself of what to do now. He shook his head violently and stormed away, and into the kitchen. Even through the walls Nico could hear Will's laughter.  
"I told you that you didn't want to fall asleep like that. But I'm guessing you don't remember, right?" The confidence in his voice was undeniable, and Nico didn't need to be looking at him to see the smug look on his face.  
Popping his head out the door frame, Nico said, "One word of this ever again and I will cut your dick off in your sleep and gouge your eyes out with it." He turned and walked back to the fridge, glaring through it's contents for the ingredients for lazy pancakes.  
"Damn... I didn't mind sleeping like that though," Will laughed again, with the tiniest hint of nervousness behind it. It seemed he never truly learned if those threats were to be taken seriously or not. "I won't say anything to anyone." He entered the kitchen, pausing uncomfortably close to Nico, seemingly for dramatic effect. "_After_ I tell you that you look really cute when you sleep," Nico grabbed a fork from the counter and lunged at Will before he had a chance to exhale. The blonde simply laughed again and swiftly avoided being impaled with the metal utensil. They continued this around the kitchen, Nico's attacks being lazy and fueled by rage with no real intent behind them, making it no challenge for the healer to dodge again and again, laughing the whole time at the dark shade of red on his friend's face.  
"What?" He demanded as soon as Nico slowed in his frantic attacks, still laughing. "It was a compliment!" The smile couldn't seem to leave the blonde's face.  
"_Shut the hell up_!" Nico screeched and went in for the kill. Will laughed heartily and twisted to avoid the surprisingly sharp point of the fork and yanked it from Nico's hand, using his height to an unfair advantage and holding it above both their heads.  
"You..." Will cooed, barely suppressing his giggles. "Just need to chill, alright? I'll order pizza or something and you can just go relax. No need to stab your best friend with a fork because he complimented you-" Nico's eyes twitched at this. "Go piss or something, you drank like twenty-seven gallons of tea last night."  
Nico mentally shrugged. Drinking that much wouldn't exactly be an achievement for either of the two. He just wished he remembered more of the time he apparently did so.

* * *

An hour later, Will and Nico sat side by side on the couch with two bags from Chick-Fil-A sitting on the coffee table. There was a comfortable silence between them as they watched the T.V and munched on their food, Nico with chicken nuggets and Will with a sandwich and a large container of fries sitting between the two.  
Nico suddenly spoke up. "So... how long did we stay up doing your bullshit work?"  
"Uh... Five or six, I think..." Will scratched his head thoughtfully. "Don't rely on that, though. How far in do you remember?"  
Nico bit his lip in thought. "I remember spilling tea all over the floor, and getting a broom to clean it up instead of a mop..." They both laughed a bit. "And I _definitely_ remember how much those chairs hurt my butt. Not much more than that, though..."  
"You have horrible memory," Will said bluntly, taking a bite of his sandwich.  
"I know..." Nico sighed and took a sip of his drink. Tea, obviously, and Will had the same. What else would the two possibly order? The same silence fell over them.  
Annabeth still weighed heavily on Nico's mind, but he said nothing, instead excusing himself frequently to completely calm himself and think in the quiet of his room. It was taking everything he had to not break down. He seemed to only remember the negatives: he rarely talked to her, he hated her for having the same preference of boys for years, (Even though they by no means had the same type anymore) and not to mention all the fuck ups in the times they did talk...  
He simply kept telling himself that she wouldn't want any of her friends to wallow in sorrow. She would want them to continue, using her memory as motivation to do better for everything. He knew for fact that was what she would want.  
He couldn't help but to wonder how everyone else was doing on the subject, and was desperate to Iris-message them, but he knew they needed time to themselves. Asking about her death this early would do absolutely no good in any way and instead only bring them further down.  
Until then, he would just have to live in the moment, as he had been for years, and enjoy the laughter filled life he had living with Will. There was nothing else he could do.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Just over a year later, she finally updates! I honestly completely forgot about this story, this website and ALL my other stories for the longest time, but upon the discovery on the app (A major fucking surprise (and blessing) to me) I re-read some of my old story ideas and the first chapters of others, and damn did I have some good plans! I'm hoping I can do myself from a year ago justice, because I don't even think I can write like that anymore.

Going to have one chapter of their normal lives (and half-assed fluff) over the next year before Percy returns in chapter three and the plot actually starts existing!

**Chapter 2**

Life slowly but surely began to return to normal for the duo. Nico found himself tearing up over Annabeth's memory less and able to focus on his normal day activities more. This does not mean he forgot her- not at all. He actually had spoken to several of the other demigods about her. Having a conversation with others who had known her on personal level helped him accept it all much more easily than he ever could trying to act like he wasn't bothered. The one he never managed to get into touch with, however, was Percy. As he came to figure out, no one had been able to contact him. Frank and Hazel had even gone to visit his house several times, but he never answered the door. They all were worried about him, but they decided together that it would be best to give him time. They would not let up on trying to talk to him, he had to know that they were there, but they wouldn't push him until he was prepared to move on.

Nico soon found a part time job where he helped repair old broken down cars to perfect condition. All his battles had him in perfect shape for such labor, and most his co-workers were either just as antisocial or just as sarcastic as him, making the tasks no issue for the boy. When he was first hired, he found himself spurting out random facts about cars that he found interesting to Will every few minutes. The blond was open with how cute he found the habit.

The aforementioned blob of sunshine also found improvement in his life. He was beginning to remember the facts for his courses easier- having more information crammed into his brain- and his grades went from C's and B's to nearly straight A's. He was able to relax more, and on most days by the time Nico got home, they could actually spend some time together. Will made no attempt to hide how much this time with ol' Doom n' Gloom meant to him. Being around Nico simply put a smile on Will's face, and he felt his stress go farther and farther into the back of his mind every time the pale boy smirked or laughed at his antics. It made hours of silence and agonizing college work feel immeasurably less horrible, knowing that just a few short hours away he could see that sheepish grin of Nico's again.

Will had long since come to terms with his feelings for the ravenette. He had decided that he would rather live his life with the person he loved as best friends than pretending to be happy with someone else while still in love with his crush of six years. He was content with what he decided was his fate.

Overall, the two were happy with where they were in life, and it only seemed to be uphill from then on.

4:39 PM.

Will glanced at the clock on his laptop hurriedly. Nico would be home any minute and he wasn't done with his essay yet. It was a cardinal sin to still being working when the short boy got home, and this thought was setting Will into full panic mode.

He forced his fingers to move faster over the keyboard, ignoring any typos he made along the way. He heard a clock ticking in his head, louder than AFI blasting through his headphones. His words began to jumble together, and his sentence structure failed. He tried retyping as fast as he could, but ended up taking off the last few letters of his previous sentence. He quickly fixed it and tried at the next sentence again, but realized halfway through that it made not even the slightest inkling of sense. He growled quietly and held the backspace key. He began typing his sentence _yet_ again before he noticed the first three words from the Sentence 2.0 still remained at the beginning of Sentence 3.0.

Will sucked in a sharp breath, and let it out slowly. Maybe he could push off this particular assignment until later that night. It was practically done, and there was no point in rushing to be finished by Nico's return if he had an aneurysm in the process.

Sighing, he shut the laptop and stood as dramatically and exaggerated as he could manage before making his way over to the couch and collapsing there instead. He shoved his face into a pillow, breathing deeply to get any air at all, and groaned. What the hell had he been thinking, trying to go through six years of college? And he could only keep taking his classes online for one more semester before he would have to begin driving to a school every day for eight hours a day; and let me tell you, he was not looking forward to that. He wouldn't have nearly as much time to talk to Nico, and while _yes_ it would lower his paranoia to no longer be using a single electronic all day, he as also comfortable with his set up.

But to be a doctor, he would need more than random facts and trivia. He would have to know how everything functioned; in a hospital, in the human brain, with the surgery tools. He couldn't stay behind the comfort of his computer screen forever.

Somewhere amidst his thoughts, Will's eyes began slowly drooping closed. Had the couch always been this comfortable? Then again, compared to the kitchen table he sat at all day, a bed of bricks would feel like heaven with a free blanket. He hummed contently.

Several minutes passed, and a tan boy with black hair entered the apartment, doing his best to prepare for a surprise attack from his obnoxious best friend, through his sleepiness. Closing the door and dropping his keys on the door side table, Nico's eyebrow began to raise in confusion. It was dead silent, save for the buzz of technology. Had Will gone out? Normally he would text him when he goes to the store, but never this late in the day.

Creeping past the kitchen, Nico peered into the living room, and his expression immediately softened. Flat on his stomach and limbs sprawled as awkwardly as half-humanly possible, Will was passed out cold on the couch.

Nico suppressed a laugh and snuck closer to the blond, kneeling carefully in front of his face. His cheek was squished against the couch cushion, and his was breathing softly through his half open mouth.

_He's too cute…_ Nico bashfully thought.

Deciding to take advantage of his sleeping roommate and his own exhaustion, Nico stood, and dropped himself on top of Will. The blond jumped, mumbling sleepily in confusion and straining to look at the sudden weight on his backside.

"Wait, what, who-?" His eyes were barely open enough to see.

Nico heard none of it, and pushed the mess of blonde hair back down.

"Shhh," he reprimanded. "You're being my pillow, and pillows don't speak. Stop that." He lightly tapped Will's forehead as he adjusted his weight, finding a more comfortable position on Will's back and closing his eyes.

"You know you have your own be-"

"Shh…" Nico lazily reached to bap his head again. "Pillows do not talk." He repeated.

Will's chest swelled, and he grinned from ear to ear. Dropping his head, he closed his eyes again. It was rare Nico showed such actions of comfortability, and the last thing Will wanted was to be too joking and push the ravenette away. He found the situation so cute that it took all of the son of Apollo's willpower to not squeal like a rabid fangirl. So snuggling his head against the couch cushion and doing his best to not move any other part of his body, he found himself falling into a blissful sleep, his dorky smile still plastered on his face.


End file.
